Bad Day for the Beasties . . .

[hannibal]

I got in a game today, using the Ortega clan vs Kealios's newly obtained Order of the Chimera box. We played a 30 soulstone game. Kelios brought Marcus, the Rattler, the Sabretooth Cerberus, Myranda, a Moleman, and the Jackalope. I brought Perdita, the enslaved nephilim, Francisco, Nino, Papa Loco, and Santiago.

We played on the Bayou's edge with Torrential Rains that never came (we forgot about it for the first 2 turns and then the cards didn't pan out for it).

Kealios had the Claim Jump strategy with Hold Out and Stake a Claim as his schemes. My strategy was Assassinate with Raid and Stake a Claim as my schemes. His claim jump was a swamp in the center. My stake a claim was a forest right next to the swamp and his stake a claim was a set of fencing to the left of the forest and the swamp. Since we both revealed our schemes: scrum in the middle!!

Let's just go with: it went bad for Kealios from the get go. He was playing a whole new faction whereas I played a faction pretty similiar in theme to the Outcasts. i.e. no magic, no tricks, just get up in his face and thump him.

It started with him moving his cerberus up, then I companioned Santiago and the Nephilim with Perdita to move up and do some shooting. I put like 6 wounds on the poor kitty and then the Nephilim cast obey and kitty kitty went charging poor Myranda like she had catnip underwear (3 wounds on her). This would be another theme: I didn't make every obey, but when it mattered I cast it and Kealios couldn't resist it.

On the left flank, through a narrow defile between my claim-staked forest and a low ridge came his Rattler. Papa Loco went to face him down, throwing some dynamite. The Rattler charged him, doing a few wounds. The problem was, the rattler was way on my side while the rest of Kealios's crew was essentially back in their deployment zone healing up the wounds I'd inflicted.

Meanwhile, out comes another obey and Mr. Rattler leaves close combat with Papa Loco so that he can get shot up and killed.

At this point, Kealios sends his crew through the ravine, using the forest to shield him from the shooty-shooty death of the Ortegas. The patched up Cebrerus charges Papa Loco but fails to kill him.

Out comes obey (see a pattern here?) and Cerberus charges Marcus into the ravine, essentially preventing the crew from advancing. The cerberus does a wound which gets shunted onto the moleman. Then with them all in a line, Papa Loco throws some dynamite, putting a couple wounds on the cerberus and Marcus with the explosion (which get shunted I think).

What's crucial is that the Cerberus blocks Marcus's line of sight because Kealios was going to use feral and alpha to take control of Papa Loco and have him go cast Take Ya With Me! into my own crew. Instead he leaps with the kitty over the forest and pounces on poor Perdita, putting 3 wounds on her. She responds with some blazing action and kills the poor kitty.

Thanks to companion, I activate my Nephilim at the same time who casts obey on Papa Loco having him charge Marcus! Hilarity then ensues where Nino shoots into combat, actually hoping to kill Papa Loco to trigger an explosion but instead targeting Marcus (and failing to hit or do any damage). Then Myranda moves up to inflict the killing blow on Papa Loco, triggering his Boom! "talent".

Then Nino takes aim at Myranda and kills her with a single lucky shot (severe damage and trigger happy). With his spare shot he picks off the Jackalope.

At this point, it's turn 4 and the only thing Kealios has left is Marcus and the moleman. Kealios use Wild at Heart Hare to leap over the trees and land in melee combat with Perdita. Thwackity-thwackity with his beat-stick and Perdita's face down in the swamp, her nephilim scampering away as well ("free at last . . . ")

True to his luck this game, kealios can't win for losing. Instead of being locked in melee in the middle of a severe-terrain-and-thus-charge-inhibiting swamp, he's standing in the open. An' Santiago & Francisco don't take too kindly to Marcus beating up on their sister. After a brief conversation with Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson, Marcus is face down in the swamp.

The moleman pokes his head out of the tunnel and turns right around for where he came.

So the tactical lesson here is: when your opponent makes every clutch roll and your cards decide that resisting is just too much effort, well then, the other guy is gonna win.

Afterward we talked about some things kealios could've done better, to support his rattlers or some such, basically chocking the whole thing up to a learning curve. But in typing this up I realize just how many times when I needed initiative or I needed a clutch spell I'd get it without him resisting. And there's just nothing you can do when stuff like that happens.

Still, was a fun game (so Kealios said :nutkick:). I'm coming to like the Ortegas and might pick them up instead of the Seamus box.

[Kealios]

Out comes obey (see a pattern here?) and Cerberus charges Marcus into the ravine, essentially preventing the crew from advancing. The cerberus does a wound which gets shunted onto the moleman. Then with them all in a line, Papa Loco throws some dynamite, putting a couple wounds on the cerberus and Marcus with the explosion (which get shunted I think).

What's crucial is that the Cerberus blocks Marcus's line of sight because Kealios was going to use feral and alpha to take control of Papa Loco and have him go cast Take Ya With Me! into my own crew. Instead he leaps with the kitty over the forest and pounces on poor Perdita, putting 3 wounds on her. She responds with some blazing action and kills the poor kitty.

This was the crucial turn. That cat blocked my BRILLIANT plan to nuke like half your team, and I couldnt see around the fuzzball! So instead, leaping next to Perdita and swinging 4 times netted one hit. That defines how the game went

I actually just realized what went wrong. It's FATE, really. Perdita is one of my Greenhorns in my Legends of the Old West Cowboy list, and my list has been VERY lucky. My all-female cowgirls have lost very few games, and some of their wins have been devastating. So Hannibal shows up and is going to proxy the Ortegas with his Vik crew, and I say, "Hey, wanna borrow Perdita?"

:club: